We Dig the Castle 2017

17 July - 18 August

Welcome to our dig diaryMany of the entries and photos on this page have been created by our Explainer volunteers, who are sharing their passion for the history of Nottingham Castle with trainees and visitors

Diary notes from Explainer volunteer RogerAfter a few wet days last week the weather started off promising but then quickly became very cool. At around 12 o’clock, however, it started to warm up, and this afternoon we were even blessed with two hours of sun!

Today we started putting up the large marquee, which a very generous supporter (who asked to remain anonymous) kindly purchased for our trainees. This will prove very useful if there are any more rainy days (and, indeed, will provide much-needed shade if the sun continues).

Being archaeologists, and consequently better with ruins, erecting the marquee caused quite a lot of initial confusion. However, we were helped by two German tourists, who kindly assisted with translating a set of German instructions. In return I took them to our viewing platform and told them about not only the dig and our excavation site but also the history of Nottingham Castle more broadly. Having not heard about the Norman Conquest or the English Civil War they were pleased to learn about this snapshot of British history.

I also had the opportunity to talk with visitors from Spain and Italy. As Explainer volunteers we’ve found that international visitors to the Castle are very interested in the English Civil War and the role that it may have played in the rise of parliamentary democracy in Britain. They enjoy learning about King Charles I’s raising of his standard at Nottingham Castle, and the fate of the site both during and immediately after the Civil War.

In addition, we were also visited by a number of families from the Nottingham area. They too were interested in hearing about what we were working on and what had been discovered so far, and enjoyed seeing the process of archaeology in action.

Other important visitors today included Friar Tuck (aka David Steele) and Nottingham’s Acting City Archaeologist, Scott Lomax. We appreciate the support and interest shown by Scott.​In between the many visitors I also continued to take photos of the excavation and the trainees, as part of the creation of our record of the dig.